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THE 7 ESSENTIAL SKILLS TO EXCEL IN B2B MARKETING

Marketing professions are evolving at a high speed. Especially in B2B. To gain responsibility or simply remain employable, to lead an effective marketing strategy in B2B, it is essential to equip yourself with the following 7 skills.

When I proudly got my Master’s Degree in Marketing in the mid-2000s, I naively thought that my career was all about it.

A few weeks later, I was fortunate enough to get a product manager position, a boon for my age. My career started on the run.

At that time, marketing was managing product lines and promoting them through traditional communication levers: catalogs, trade shows, media ads …

Then Facebook arrived, Google has become totally in our daily lives. I felt after a few weeks that I needed to update myself to avoid ending up in the more or less short term.

I was lucky to be able to do it at the time, this is not the case for everyone. But it’s not too late! Here are the 7 skills you absolutely need to excel in B2B marketing.

1. Know how to set up a lead generation strategy

Lead generation is the major challenge of B2B marketing .

The decision maker in B2B is less and less warm to the idea of ​​talking to a commercial. Cold prospecting such as phoning, door-to-door or mass emailing is no longer effective.

The B2B decision-maker now has all the information he needs at the click of a mouse, on the Internet, and now wants to lead his buying reflections at his own pace.

The unwanted solicitations of the salesmen go against that.

To win customers, marketing must implement a lead generation strategy to attract these autonomous decision makers on its website to convert them into qualified and mature leads that sales people can convert.

2. Know how to improve the referencing of an internet site

To be visible on the Internet, you have to be well referenced on Google and other search engines.

The quality of SEO of your website in B2B has a direct impact on the effectiveness of your marketing strategy.

Website referencing goes far beyond the use of keywords . There are many good practices to know and many levers to operate to properly reference a B2B website.

In addition, the rules of the game are constantly changing. As proof, Google updates its algorithm on average 500 times a year!

To excel in B2B marketing, you must keep abreast of these developments.

3. Knowing how to communicate on social networks

Using social networks is not complicated. Communicating well on B2B social networks is another story.

What do I mean by communicating well on B2B social networks?

Communicating well on B2B social networks means investing in the right platforms and publishing the right messages at the right time to generate leads and return on investment.

4. Know how to collaborate with the sales department

The time when the marketing department and the commercial department worked each on their own side is over.

As we have seen above, the B2B decision-maker wishing to conduct his own buying considerations requires marketing to generate quality leads for salespeople.

In this process, it is essential that both services work hand in hand.

To excel in B2B marketing, you must have the commercial fiber and agree to question your certainties through regular discussions with sales.

Marketing and sales alignment is a major issue in B2B.

5. Know how to create relevant Emailings

Emailing is an essential lever for B2B marketing. Still, it is necessary to know how to exploit it.

Too many B2B companies make the mistake of using Emailing to generate leads . Emailing is not made for that.

Emailing is a lever that should allow you to convert your leads into customers. With Emailing, you must be able to send quality content to your leads based on their level of qualification and maturity.

We talk about Lead Nurturing.

To excel in B2B marketing, you need to know all the best practices to create effective Emailing .

6. Know how to choose and use the right tools

To date, there are more than 7000 quality tools for an effective B2B marketing strategy .

Of course, you can not control them all or even know them. And so much the better.

To lead an effective B2B marketing strategy, you must limit the tools and focus on those that best fit your goals.

You must be able to ask yourself the right questions and know how to identify the best marketing tools to use.

7. Know how to analyze the performance of your actions

Let’s be clear: to succeed in B2B marketing at the time of the modern buyer, you have to love maths.

I am not saying that Math Sup / Math Spé should have been done, but it is important to know how to analyze all the data at your disposal.

Internet, search engines and social networks are constantly evolving. The expectations and behaviors of the B2B buyer evolve at the same pace.

What works today in your marketing strategy will not work tomorrow.

It is therefore essential to regularly analyze the performance of your marketing actions to optimize your return on investment.